Starting with the installation of 11 bicycle (and pedestrian) counters in a number of counties predominantly in west, central Scotland, from June 2017 and through to Aug 2020, when the 63rd counter was installed in Fort William in the Highlands, and a further three in Edinburgh in Jun and Jul 2021.
| traffic mode | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bicycle | 121,410 | 334,577 | 1,079,064 | 2,061,402 | 1,382,533 | 4,978,986 |
| pedestrian | 321,198 | 910,552 | 3,711,360 | 7,784,947 | 8,114,645 | 20,842,702 |
| traffic mode | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bicycle | 10 | 6 | 13 | 24 | 23 |
| pedestrian | 28 | 17 | 45 | 90 | 147 |
| traffic mode | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bicycle | 42 | 29 | 53 | 96 | 93 |
| pedestrian | 110 | 84 | 179 | 360 | 604 |
As at end Aug 2021 nearly 5m bikes and just under 21m pedestrians had been recorded going past all counters.
Average count per day dropped in 2018 for both types of counters before starting to rise again. Looking at counts overall, cycling peaked in May 2020, two months after the first COVID-19 lockdown was imposed, then continued to drop after plateauing over the summer. Despite further restrictions in 2021 cycling dropped overall. Walking, overall, however continued to rise in 2021. But even this started to decrease in April, and by June had dropped below the same month in 2020. However, both cycling and walking started to rise again in Jul 2021, both over the 2020 figures, but then fell again in Aug.
Comparing total count for each location against averages per hour through the day… this gets more interesting looking at the data month on month, as we can see how cycling changes through the full period for which counters were installed and working.
About …
Counter data may be accessed via Cycling Scotland's Active Travel Open Data Portal.
The data used in the analysis presented was accessed via the API at the level of detail for both pedestrian and cycle counters operated under Cycling Scotland's National Monitoring Framework. To use the API you must register and request an API key. Alternatively, a dump may be downloaded from the portal.
Historical weather pattern data was obtained from the Met Office.